The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-08-04
MOVED ALL AT ONCE.
A City of the Dead Carried Away by the
Muddy Waters of the Missouri.

A City OF the Dead Carried Away by the
Muddy Waters of the Missouri.
The approaching completion of the
new Union Pacific bridge calls to mind
the fact that the turbid waters of ths
Missouri are gleefully flowing over
nearly two hundred graves. unknown.
unmarked and union ored. Resting
peacefully in the sand, the bones are
gradually crumbling into dust. and I'M
less Gabriers trumpet is blown unusu-
ally loud at Omaha, there they will re-
main forever Two hundred graves at
the bed of great river is unusual. but
two hundred graves of unknown men,
all dying of the same disease. is 4 cir
cumStance almost unparalleled. Ma
ture is responsible for their being un-
der fifty feet of water, and the art of
bridge building is the cause of their
being there at ALL
In 1869 the first bridge across tho
Missouri, between Co uncil Bluffs and
Omaha, was begun. At that time
Omaha had a population of 1000 one
day, 1000 the next, or vice versa. 1t
was the halfway house of the continent
a sort of One-dayto-look-around-in
place. Men on their way to the Pacific
coast who had. by some of the multi
fariOus ways of spending money, exc
hausted their capital, stopped in Omaha
to replenish it. In the vernacular of
the time, they were after grub stakes"
Msny of them came from good ia miles
in the East. but Brown, Smith or Jones
were as good names, as were De We're
or Howard. and less likely to cause
trouble in the future. Labor. skilled
and unskilled, was at a premium, and
in no place were wages SO high rs in
the caissons of the Union Pacific bridge
under the bed of the Missouri river.
People who had been in Omaha any
length of time had SOME hesitation about
working in the caissons. They hal seen
men descend the ladder in the full bloom
of health. and had scarcely been able
to recognize them as they came up after
few hours labor, with their backs
bent in the form of tightly strung
bow, their limbs partially paralyzed,
and their pulses throbbing at the rate
Of one hundred minute. Big pay
afforded no inducement to them to SUBJ
ject Their mortal frames to the pres
sure of several atmospheres in order to
fall down in faint, with blood stream
ing from their noses and ears, and be
carried away to die. Strangers. how
overland nearly every one in Omaha
was stranger-had not received such
object lessons. They had never heard
of the dread caisson disease, and the
subterranean work had no terrors for
them The engineers in charge of the
work did not conceal the danger that
they were undergoing, but they laughed
at it.
Enter Smith, Jones or Robinson. He
is taken into receiving vault, where
the pressure of the air is gradually in
creased till it equals that of the atmos-
pherc in the sepulcher where the work
is done. The uncomfortable feeling
gradually wears away, and he works
with pick and shovel for an hour. per-
haps, without feeling any i'll effects.
Suddenly his spinal cord seems to snap
and his head droops until it is nearly
on level with his loins. His blood.
feeling like molten iron. courses through
his veins with meteoric swiftness, AMI
his skull seems too small to contain
his brain. He is removed from the
sepulcher and taken to the hospital If
he RECEIVERS he is a cripple for life. Ii
not. he is buried in the sand on the
sloping bank of the river, and shingle
marked Jones. Smith or Robinson, as
the case may be, is stuck at the head of
the grave. A portion of the machinery
of the bridge has given out. That is all.
Lives are cheap, and other pistons and
levers take the place.
1t was the intention of the Union Pa
cific officials to mark the graves in an
manner-in fact, to have 4
private cemetery of their own. The
river gods were not consulted, however,
and the Missouri one day took notion
to change its course. With fixity Of
purpose worthy of emulation its three
parts of mud to one of water suddenly
lowered and submerged the grass.
taking the headstones down to Kansas
City, where they doubtless served to
shingle houses for the early settlers. and
destroying all marks of identity.
The names of the men now buried in |
the Missouri can never be known. Back |
i'll the East, among their own families,
their names have become merely
recollection of days gone by.-On,aha